Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to metallurgical furnaces and in particular to a new and useful electric metallurgical furnace having a bottom with a central counter-contact which is engaged by strap elements of current cables on respective opposite sides through bolts which are limited to the straps and biased against them.
Electric furnaces, in particular d-c arc furnaces, have a contact system in their bottom which establishes, during the melting process, the necessary electrical contact with the scrap or with the melt.
Such a contact system is described e.g. in EP-PS No. 0058817.
These bottom electrodes are subject to wear sooner than the hearth lining. As it is relatively labor-intensive to replace individual contact rods, it has become common practice to replace all contact rods jointly at appropriate intervals of time.
This changing is done preferably by removing the bottom electrode from the furnace vessel in one piece and replacing it with a new one. In this operation the current cables remain suspended from the furnace vessel bottom.